Latest news with #Anti-ProstitutionLaw
Tokyo Reported
3 days ago
- Tokyo Reported
Saitama woman, yakuza suspected of forcing runaway girl, 14, into prostitution
TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a woman living in Saitama Prefecture and a member of a criminal syndicate for allegedly forcing a 14-year-old runaway girl into prostitution last year, reports the Sankei Shimbun (June 9). On two occasions between December 23 and 28, Chihiro Fushimi, 32, and Masaru Minowa, a 33-year-old member of the Yamaguchi-gumi, are alleged to have forced the girl to engage in lewd acts with a man at a hotel in Saitama. Upon their arrests on suspicion of violating the Child Welfare Act and the Anti-Prostitution Law, the suspects admitted to the allegations. 'I made her do it to earn money,' and Minowa said. At the time, the girl was a third-year middle school student. Last November, Fushimi met the girl on a social-networking site. Chihiro Fushimi, left, and Masaru Minowa When the suspect found out that the girl had run away from home, she invited her to live at her residence in Kasukabe City. She then encouraged the girl to engage in prostitution. Minowa is an acquaintance of Fushimi. Together, they posed as the girl online to recruit customers interested in arrangements known as papakatsu , or compensated dating. The suspects drove the girl to met the men contacted online. Fushima and Minowa collected 120,000 yen from the girl's customers. The girl stayed at Fushimi's house for six days. She then returned to her parents. The incident came to light when her parents filed a missing persons report. Police have also sent documents on the pair to prosecutions on suspicion of non-consensual sexual intercourse.
Japan Forward
26-05-2025
- Japan Forward
Raid Those Sleazy Host Clubs!
このページを 日本語 で読む The Diet has enacted the Revised Control and Improvement of Amusement Business Law to regulate malicious host clubs. It should be promulgated as early as late May and take effect in late June. We cannot continue to tolerate the injustice of shady operations forcing female customers into prostitution. Host club operators are deceptively saddling female customers with huge debts to trap them. Hopefully, the police and other relevant agencies will strictly enforce the revised law and eradicate these malicious operations. In a widespread practice, scheming hosts at such clubs entice vulnerable female customers into falling in love with them. They then convince their besotted admirers to order expensive champagne and other expensive drinks one after another. In no time, the unwary women find themselves drowning in debt to cover the hefty "tabs" they have run up. This racket has become a serious social problem. In addition, the widespread practice of "scout kickbacks" has exacerbated the damage. This refers to hosts and scouts who introduce their customers to sex establishments and then receive a "referral fee." The revised law outright bans such practices. It also clearly states that requests for food and drink that exploit "romantic feelings or other affectionate feelings" are "prohibited." Businesses using such exploitative approaches will be subject to administrative sanctions such as suspension of their business licenses. As the sun sets, street prostitutes become more visible in front of Okubo Park in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward. (Some images have been edited.) Behavior designed to coerce customers to pay their inflated tabs by engaging in prostitution, working in sex establishments, appearing in adult videos, or other such acts will face heavier criminal penalties. Violators will be subject to up to six months in prison and a fine of up to ¥1 million JPY ($7,000 USD). Additionally, the use of scout kickbacks has been banned. Unlicensed businesses will also be subject to tougher penalties. Fines on such illegal businesses have been increased to a maximum of ¥300 million ($2.1 million). According to the National Police Agency, a total of 207 hosts and related persons were arrested in 2024 for violating the Anti-Prostitution Law, coercing others, or related offenses. That was an increase of 121 from the previous year. In Tokyo's Kabukicho entertainment district, where there are many host clubs, business operators established an industry association in April 2014. They also adopted voluntary rules, such as abolishing running tabs in the form of accounts receivable. But the reality is that the situation has not improved. The involvement of anonymous mobile crime groups in the rampant practice of scouting kickbacks has also been pointed out. Collectively, these crime groups are dubbed tokuryu . The revised entertainment law appropriately strengthens regulations regarding this vile practice. Nighttime in Minami, Osaka, where lounges and host clubs are crowded in the surrounding multi-tenant buildings. On October 4, 2024. (©Sankei by Yusuke Kizu, originally for another topic) Next, the crucial question is how to apply the law effectively. It will be difficult to clearly draw a line as to what constitutes the now-prohibited "acts based on romantic feelings." Are statements and behavior, like "You have to come to our bar, or our relationship is finished," or "If you don't want to break up, you have to drink here with me," covered? It would help if specific guidelines for crackdowns were made public. The revised entertainment law will also apply to pricey hostess clubs. After the law comes into force, we hope to see the police step up enforcement, including by actively raiding offending establishments. That is the only way we can root out these sleazy businesses. Author: Editorial Board, The Sankei Shimbun このページを 日本語 で読む
Asahi Shimbun
06-05-2025
- Asahi Shimbun
Prostitutes move from Osaka alley after it was painted yellow
An alley in Osaka's Kita Ward is decorated with illustrated stickers after it was painted yellow on Dec. 10. (Sakiko Kondo) OSAKA—A simple change in scenery has led to a dramatic decrease in prostitutes soliciting customers in a narrow alley running through the Taiyujicho district of Osaka's Kita Ward. Masafumi Fujino, 79, head of a local crime prevention association branch, said he has seen 10 or more prostitutes in the alley about a 10-minute walk from JR Osaka Station. However, after the alley was painted yellow in December last year, the number of streetwalkers decreased by 90 percent, local authorities said. The color scheme is based on the 'nudge theory,' in which subtle environmental changes can coax people to willingly modify their behavior. In the Osaka case, the switch to yellow made the women feel uncomfortable standing on a conspicuous surface. Police are also pushing longer-term solutions, such as helping the women leave the business for good. SURGE AFTER PANDEMIC The alley is lined with hotels and restaurants, and passers-by can enter the hotels without attracting attention thanks to poor visibility. The number of prostitutes there sharply increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. Some residents grew so weary of the change in their neighborhood that they moved out of the area, Fujino said. Since summer 2023, officers at the Sonezaki Police Station have sent papers to prosecutors on more than 30 women suspected of violating the Anti-Prostitution Law in the area. Despite the arrests, the women kept returning to the alley to solicit customers. 'There was a limit when all we could do was to conduct crackdowns,' Ryu Kitagawa, then chief of the community safety division at the police station, recalled. 'It was like playing a cat-and-mouse game.' The National Research Institute of Police Science suggested that the police station employ the nudge theory. Police officers and local residents painted a 100-meter stretch of the alley in yellow in December. Illustrated stickers designed by students at a local vocational school also decorate the alley. Osaka prefectural police have surveyed the alley four times a day. The results showed an average of 7.43 women solicited customers in the week before the alley was painted yellow. The maximum number was 17. One week after the paint job, the figure dropped to zero. In one week two months later, the average was 0.86, with a maximum of four, representing a 90-percent decrease. NO FUNDAMENTAL SOLUTION Local residents welcome the visual revamp, saying the alley has become easier to walk through. But authorities realize this is not a fundamental solution to prostitution. According to prefectural police, women are pushed into street prostitution after becoming debt-ridden. A survey conducted by the Sonezaki Police Station covering 28 women suspected of prostitution showed their average age was 24.4 years old, and more than 60 percent of them were saddled with debts to host clubs. One of them said she was struggling to make ends meet, and that streetwalking was more lucrative than working at a sex parlor. 'An approach that focuses on making women move away from areas where they solicit customers is something of a stopgap measure,' Takeshi Haraguchi, a professor of social geography at Kobe University graduate school, said about the painted alley. 'We need to think about why women have to stand there.' He said homeless people and other socially vulnerable groups have been removed from urban areas where international conferences, the Olympics and other large-scale events have been held. 'I think the same goes for the latest countermeasure against customer solicitation implemented ahead of the Osaka Kansai Expo,' he added. In spring 2024, the Sonezaki Police Station started making efforts to help street prostitutes leave the trade. After the investigation is concluded, police will escort women to a support organization run by a municipal government if they want such help. They have connected at least one woman to the right service, according to the station. 'We want to introduce more active countermeasures, which are not limited to crackdowns but also include establishing a system where women can receive necessary support,' an officer said.
